Feature Interview & Giveaway by ArTrend

I was delighted when Monica from ArTrend here on Etsy contacted me and asked if I would do a feature and a giveaway for her. She is giving a beautiful watercolour of three penguins signed and dated by her own fair hand. Value $25 So here is a little into her life and love of Art.

I was born in Naples, southern Italy. I lived in my native city until I was 
18 years old and then I moved to Miami Beach Florida where I  now  currently live with my husband Larry .

I graduated at the F.Palizzi art institute in Naples, Italy in 1998 where I learned and practiced many different painting an sculpting techniques. Art has always been a need for me, the need of creating with my hands, with passion and experience in different artistic media.

My inspirations are almost always part of my dreams, even if like I said before my interests usually influence my finished artworks but also I love to admire other artist’s pieces and sometimes see my own interpretation in their work. I love nature, art and travel, and these interests often influence my finished artworks, giving my pieces a sense of another place or time. It’s funny how we all view art in different ways and how personal feelings can influence not only the artist that creates an artwork but also the person that is looking at it.

My favourite artist without any doubt has to be Gustav Klimt. I also love all the great French impressionist and Italian masters but if I could choose a piece of art to hang in my house I will probably get one of the artwork of the 99fears collection created by Nedko Solakov

Here I am painting on glass and the solvent (pure gum spirit, turpentine) gives me a headache after a while, so I have to mask up.

If I could have one wish it would be to have my family closer in order to spend the holidays  and some quality time with my loved ones.

Some of my hobbies! We all have them right!
I don t have kids yet, so… my dog Maya is my baby! I found her last Christmas at the shelter here in Miami Dade and when I am not busy between my day job and my dream job I love to spend time with her!

She follows me in all my activities; she goes kayaking, running, biking, and most of all plays soccer! It’s true!



Well Monica sent me so much wonderful 
information and lots of photo's and I am sorry I could not add them all here. Anyway lets go and find these penguins a new home. 

How to enter:
Please follow my blog and  visit ArTrend and see some more of her beautiful art, heart an item, shop or both:)
Enter as many times as you like so if you tweet or face book this then add your name again. I will pick a winner with random.org on the 5th August and post the details here. So thanks everyone and thank you Monica for such a great giveway, good luck. 

New to Blogging Handy Links

Not so long ago I started my blog and seemed to spend an absoulte age looking for various buttons and gadgets I wanted to add to my blog. To save you pulling your hair out I have listed three basic ones to get you started.

First  one is a follow me button for twitter, there are lots to choose from,and just add your shop name and then  just copy & paste the code. Open "add a Gadget" on your blog, then paste the code into the html, same applies for the other two.


"Picture curtesy Google"


1. http://www.twitterbuttons.org/ Follow me  on Twitter

2. http://www.tweetmeme.com/  Allows  you/visitors to retweet your post.


3. http://www.flagcounter.com/  This lets you see how many visitors and which countries they are from:

4. http://www.askdavetaylor.com/  Fantastically easy to add a u tube video to your blog, change the size to 200 fits well on the blog

I know this is basic stuff  but this took me quite awhile to sort when I started, ok call me slow if you like, just thought it might just help someone new to blogging. By the way my hair has almost grown back too! If I find anymore will add to this.